The Second to Last Chapter in the "Emerald Bay Arc"

The reason Luffy's in the military will be cleared up next chapter, as well as Hotaru's ability

Thanks to Shinobi-dono for reviewing and for the constructive words

I don't own One Piece

Enjoy and Review.

Chapter 4

Count Colonello vs. Leo

A man walked from behind them, silencing the crowd and walking toward the two officers.

"Count Colonello," was what the officers whispered saluting to man before them.

Leo and Hotaru looked at the man standing in front of them; he gave off an aura much different than Luffy's. The man wore blue dress paints with blue hush puppies. His collared shirt wasn't buttoned up, revealing the massive Pecs that one of his stout body size and short height really shouldn't have. Around his broad neck was a string holding a log post (used like an island locator) and a bokken strapped to his waist. His long black pompadour haircut grew way past his plain face and he let out a disgruntled sigh as he eyed the two boys looking at him.

"Are they the two that want to take my ship?" He bluntly stated with the same disgruntled tone.

"YESSIR, THOSE TWO KIDS ARE THE PERPETRATORS!" was the response of the two naval officers.

Hotaru looked at the Pompadour and then look to see his powerful Sempai still sleeping. He then winced in pain from the beating he received (he felt like a punching bag with a lot of dents in it.) His anger at the red haired brat left and the feeling of pain returned in a flurry. He sweat dropped thinking that this situation couldn't possible get any worst.

"THAT'S RIGHT; I, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL LEO, WILL COMMANDEER THIS SHIP TO SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF MY GREATNESS!!"

(Oh wait, it just got worst)

Colonello looked at Leo with fury in his eyes. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY YOU LITTLE…?"

Leo looked at Colonello and smirked. "I GUESS THAT GOD AWFUL THING YOU CALL A HAIR CUT IS MESSING UP YOUR HEARING, I'LL REPEAT IT SO THAT EVEN YOU CAN GET IT!" "I, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL LEO, WILL COMMANDEER THIS SHIP TO SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF MY GREATNESS!!"

After the brat's second outburst, the indigo haired criminal thought to himself, "You know, the death penalty isn't looking so bad right now."

There was an abrupt silence that entered the air; not one made a sound.

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY ……" the Count paused a bit, wanting to say the perfect thing.

"AUTHORITY!?" said one of the townspeople.

"SENSES!?" asked another person from the crowd.

"INTELLIGENCE!?" asked Hotaru in an almost interested tone.

"I KNOW, ALL OF THE ABOVE RIGHT!?" shouted Leo, pumping his fist into the air, thinking he was right.

The naval officers all looked at each other with worried expressions, like they knew what was about to happen.

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY HAIRSTYLE, YOU LITTLE WHELP!?"

The naval officers all face planted, they knew all about this man and the pride over his hair. (But they didn't think he would actually say it out loud)

There was a collective "HUH?!" running throughout the crowd of townspeople. Leo even gave Hotaru a "He's kidding" look to see if he could get an answer.

Hotaru just shrugged, he was as confused as Leo and the townspeople were.

"THIS HAIRSTYLE IS THE COLONELLO FAMILY SYMBOL, WHEN YOU INSULT MY HAIR…; YOU INSULT MY HONOR, BOY!!"

"What your whole family has that hair; then you've got a pretty f-ed up family then," said Leo with a shrug.

What happened next was in a blink of an eye; Colonello in a massive rage drew his sword and screamed at the top of his lungs. The red haired boy gasped; as the Count with the horrific hairstyle had let out that primal yell one moment, only to disappear before everyone's eyes in the next. The next moment anyone saw him, he was right above Leo with his sword inches towards brat's face.

Hotaru looked on in shock as the sword was driven into the left side of Leo's face, sending the boy flying over Luffy and into another food stand.

Luffy took this moment to open his eyes and look upon the scene. His pupil on the ground holding his sides, surrounded in a circle by naval officers and a tall man with a pompadour standing to his right, pointing a sword at him.

"Yup, this situation looked real good" Luffy thought sarcastically. He put on his straw hat and continued to watch the deterioration of the indigo haired boy's battle.

Hotaru looked at Colonello with an astonished and irate look in his eyes. Although the boy deserved it and Hotaru found it kind of funny; the boy helped him out and he wasn't going to let him down.

Straw Hat looked on, not saying a word or signaling to anybody he was awake.

Hotaru ran toward the stout swordsman pulling back his fist and ignoring the pain throbbing all over his body. He threw his punch toward the stomach, but his fist was stopped by the wooden sword. The swordsman laughed, he raised his sword in the air pushing Hotaru back and causing him to tumble of balance. The sword was brought down quickly, parting the air around the blade as it arch down onto the handcuffed boy.

Hotaru still off balanced, raised his arms over his head to block the blow. The sword made contact with the bracelet, sending a pulse of energy throughout the small area. The Pudgy Man laughed, interested that his strike was blocked. He raised the steaming sword over his head for the second strike. Seeing his chance when the sword was picked up, Hotaru quickly got closer to the Count to start his counterattack.

By getting close, he closed the distance between them and made it harder for Colonello to bring down his sword. He threw another punch at Colonello's stomach but this time it hit it dead on.

The pudgy man let out a panicked gasp as he tried to get back the air leaving his lungs from the impact. Hotaru continued his assault by throwing a litany of punches to fast to see towards Colonello's gut. Each punch seemed to leave an indentation on the fat man's stomach. (Like poking a marshmallow)

The force from the punches pushed Colonello of his feet and into the air. Hotaru brought back his fist, spun around once for momentum and delivered a powerful elbow toward Colonello's gut. The man coughed out a bit of blood while flying into the same wood shop that befell Hotaru's other opponent.

Hotaru looked on and smiled, which turned to a frown when all the pain he had pushed away returned with a vengeance. He fell to his knees holding both of his sides with arms, and put his head on the ground.

The naval officers around him were about to take this chance to attack but was called off. "No, this boy is mine. That was some good damage there but pretty soon I will make sure you end up like your little friend!" Colonello laughed.

Hotaru looked up and grimaced, he now had a hard time moving around because of his injuries. "I think I made them worst!"

Luffy looked on to the scene with widening eyes, this reminded him of memories long ago.

(The Thousand Sunny is right now surrounded by the military in impossible odds)

Luffy woke up and looked before him, the naval fleet in front of him made his blood boil. "Who are they to stand before my dream; I'm going to be King of the Pirates"

The crew (minus Chopper) looked to Luffy and nodded, they all knew his decision before he could even speak.

"Coral Head, Protect Camie-chan with your life!" screamed Sanji.

Seina looked at him and nodded, "I would have done it anyway Ero-chef." He then looked to Camie and said "Stick close to me, and never leave my side Camie- chan."

Before Camie could comment, she was cut off by Zolo "Haichi left you in our care as his final wish. WE WON'T LET ANYTHING HAPPEN TO YOU!"

Camie looked into Zolo's determined face and nodded, she huddled close to Seina not noticing the shade of crimson his face turned when she held him.

Luffy looked to see the ships make there move, (didn't even wait for an answer), he raised his hands to give the signal.

From the mast, "Yes, do not think your pitiful ships are far enough to save you from the Sogeking" screamed Sogeking (Usopp). He held back his kabuto ready to fire.

Franky in the control firing up the weapons "I'll show you the power of my ship, The Thousand Sunny isn't a ship to mess with."

Luffy looked on, the wind blowing around his face, whipping up the waves and scaring Nami.

He could tell, the weather was to their advantage and this gust was the right moment to begin. "FIRE!!"

He looked on, his student in a desperate situation all on his own. He suppressed his urge to help; he couldn't interfere due to his responsibility as a naval officer and his teacher. He looked down to the ground and then turned to the side of him. He looked on in shock at the person standing before him.

The pudgy man waddled over to Hotaru, who due to aggravating the injury couldn't move, and raised his sword.

"I will have you join that boy now! Senpu- ken!!" Colonello's arm which held the sword, started to spin. The wind around his arm started to whip around his arm, after a few minutes an image of a whirlwind formed around his sword.

Hotaru's eyes widened as he looked at the blade coming down upon him with amazing force. His eyes widened even more when he saw a familiar red head standing in front of him, blocking the sword strike with his palm.

"LEO!!" screamed Hotaru as he looked at the boy in front of him; his already split in half shirt blow in the wind. He had both his open hands holding the swirling blade and he turned his head to look at Hotaru.

"Good Job Criminal, you really are the person needed to help me spread the word of my greatness"

Leo looked back at Colonello; he brought his arms back and shoved Colonello's sword backwards. "WHAT!?" screamed the Naval officers and Colonello.

Hotaru looked up in shock to see Leo face was perfectly fine. It didn't have any mark on it. Luffy took note of this as well. "The kid has got potential; these two can make a great team." Leo turned to Hotaru and gave him a peace sign "I would have saved you earlier but I still had some popcorn left over, so I decided to enjoy watching your fight."

A vein appeared on the handcuffed boy's forehead. "He just watched my troubles again?"

The red haired boy looked back at the pudgy swordsman and gave a sly grin. "Don't worry; leave the bad haircut to me!"

The Count looked on and gave a malicious smile. "Just the boy I wanted to pummel" he thought.

"OSHIKIRI!!" yelled the Count as he ran toward his new opponent. He brought back his sword and began a thrusting motion. The slender sword seemed to disappear, and the only thing to remain was slender white flashes of light heading toward Leo.

The cocky red head simply tilted his head to the side to avoid the first flash, but then grimaced when as he noticed a cut appear on his cheek. He looked on to see a frenzy of small flash thrust toward his head. He tried his best to avoid all of them, but while avoiding one flash, two other grazed the side of his face.

As the Count continued to move forward thrusting the blade, Leo continued to move backwards trying to avoid the never-ending flashes hitting him. The red head simply seemed to have enough as he leaped backwards to create distance between him and the fat man.

"GOT YOU, BRAT! KAZEKIRI!!" The Count raised his blade in the air, and then brought it down with great speed. This created a large singular flash that flew quickly toward the jumping red head. The flash hit Leo dead on and sent him crashing into the ground.

Hotaru looked on as Leo's crash kicked up a lot of dust in the air. He had a worried expression on his face, but it disappeared when the red haired boy in question got up to dust himself off.

"That kind of hurt, but I expected more from you; especially now that I made you more wind resistant!" stated Leo with a happy expression on his face. His face had a few shallow cuts, but other than that he was perfectly fine. He was holding something long and black in his right hand and had made a victory sign with his left.

Hotaru looked at Leo to see what he was talking about but then looked back to see the pudgy swordsman. His face deadpanned and he cried out in laughter. In fact the entire crowd of people burst out into an uncontainable riot, they were laughing wildly and completely shattered the serious atmosphere built up through the fight just now.

Even Luffy couldn't help but laugh. The Count began to scratch his head to figure out what Leo meant, but a shockingly mortified expression filled his face when he realized that half of his pompadour was completely gone. The only thing left was a small patch of hair on his head, he dropped his sword and started to try and grab the area in front of him that used to hold his longer hair.

The naval officers looked on in shock, as the pudgy man's face went from mortified to revulsion all in a single moment. The man fell to his knees, it was as of he lost the will to fight without his hair. He turned to see a familiar red haired boy holding his hair and poising, like had he just caught a big fish. At that moment the revulsion in his eyes turned to bloodlust, and he picked up his blade.

"I'LL KILL YOU, KAZEKIRI" the man yelled as he repeatedly swung his blade toward Leo. Leo turned from his poising to see the multiply white flashes speeding towards him.

The boy got an evil look in his eye as he threw the Count's hair into the first flash of light, obliterating it on contact. He then sidestepped the other flashes and started to run toward the now distraught Count. He looked to the man a wide grin appeared across his face.

"OSHIKIRI!!" yelled the Count as he thrust his blade at Leo, but then stopped when the boy disappeared from his view.

"SHISHI RENDAN!!" you could hear a loud scream from no where. Then Leo appeared behind the Count, he did a sweeping kick to the swordsman's legs.

The off balanced swordsman fell forward with no support under him. Then a huge left hook hit the falling man in the side of his face, knocking him over more as he continued to fall. The next moment, the red haired boy spring boarded off the swordsman's back to deliver a devastating axe kick to the back of the man's forehead.

The impact from the kick nailed the Count into the ground head first, as well as created a crater where he landed. The swordsman laid there silently and motionless, he was not getting back up.

"CONGRATULATIONS MR. COUNT, YOU HAVE JUST BECOME THE FIRST PAGE IN THE LEGEND OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL LEO!!"

Vocabulary

bokken- wooden sword

Oshikiri- Straw Cutter, or cutting thinly- A thrusting attack that leaves little to no blind spots. Done by rapidly thrusting and withdrawing the blade

Kazekiri- Wind Cutter- A displacement of wind, the force of the strike become a projectile that travels through the wind

Shishi Rendan- Lion's Combo- A multi-hit barrage of attacks used to KO the opponent

A pompadour is often created by combing the sides of the hair back, while fanning the top of the hair forward and curling over itself. Pompadours are created through standing the hair straight up, retaining a "spiked" quality.